Martin Brundle admits that 29-year-old F1 driver was ‘beyond angry’ during the Las Vegas GP weekend

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Martin Brundle has admitted that Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was seriously upset throughout the weekend in Las Vegas.

Brundle was reviewing this weekend’s race in the United States which turned out to be a battle of attrition in the Nevada desert.

The incredibly late start times alongside the constant media obligations made the Las Vegas Grand Prix one of the most tiring on the Formula 1 calendar.

That’s alongside the fact that the Sin City circuit is the second-longest on the grid behind Spa.

The weekend got off to the worst possible start with Free Practice 1 red-flagged less than 10 minutes into the session.

Carlos Sainz ran over a drain and the damage caused forced him to change so many parts that he received a large grid penalty.

He should have been starting on the front row of the grid alongside his teammate Charles Leclerc which would have vastly changed the landscape of the race.

Verstappen wouldn’t have been able to dive up in the inside of the Monegasque and instead may have ended up caught in the chaos that ensued in turn one.

Brundle has sympathised with Sainz’s situation in Las Vegas and thinks he did well to control his emotions after a harshly unfair penalty.

The rules will need to be looked at to ensure a similar situation doesn’t happen again.

It’s summed up Sainz’s season although his under-the-radar consistency has seen him competing for his best-ever finish in the Drivers’ Championship going into the final race of the year.

Brundle sympathises with Sainz in Las Vegas

Speaking about the Spanish driver, Brundle said: “The Ferraris looked on the pace throughout, and, just as in Monza, their low-downforce high top-speed aero package was working well.

“Carlos Sainz’s car had been wrecked by the errant access cover in first practice in a pretty scary way, and he needed many new parts including a battery pack which would hand him a 10-place grid penalty.

“He was controlled but clearly beyond angry, as were his team who thought the penalty unfair in the circumstances. They also wanted to know who was going to pay for the damage.”

As Brundle suggests, Sainz did very well to recover to sixth place in Las Vegas, especially as he got caught up in the carnage on the opening lap.

The Spaniard is almost certainly going to be the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race this season which is an impressive feat.

Las Vegas was expected to be similar to Singapore and that grid penalty scuppered his chances of doing a street race double.

All eyes are on Abu Dhabi now and whether he can win the battles of the Spaniards against Fernando Alonso.